*** URGENT: Call Your Senators (800-459-1887) to Reject Estate Tax Cut ***

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Mon Jul-31-06 12:41 PM
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Email from the Coalition on Human Needs (http://www.chn.org)...

URGENT: Call Your Senators to Reject Estate Tax Cut

Just before leaving for their summer recess, the U.S. House of Representatives voted 230 to 180 in favor of a bill that makes drastic and permanent cuts in the estate tax, extends many popular tax cuts due to expire, and raises the minimum wage to $7.25 over 3 years. It was one of the most cynical ploys ever witnessed in Congress, allowing House members to claim credit for a vote to increase the minimum wage - but at the cost of hundreds of billions of dollars to be paid to multimillionaire heirs. Now this cynical ploy is headed to the Senate - where a vote could occur as early as Wednesday, or sometime before the Senate is scheduled to recess at the end of this week. Despite press accounts suggesting the bill may not pass in the Senate, it will be very close. Your Senators' votes are critically important and there will be intense pressure on them to vote yes.

TAKE ACTION!

Call Your Senators Toll-Free, 800-459-1887* and tell them:

Vote NO on H.R. 5970, the cynical ploy to slash the estate tax. This bill outrageously ties a long-overdue increase in the minimum wage to enriching multimillionaire heirs by hundreds of billions of dollars. Reject this blackmail and simply raise the minimum wage to $7.25.

*The toll-free number directs you to the U.S. Capitol Switchboard - call twice; to ask to speak to both of your Senators. THANK YOU - this is really important!

The House's shameful action:
Call it hostage-taking, blackmail, or hypocrisy on parade. Just before taking off for their August recess, the House leadership finally allowed a vote on the minimum wage to reach the floor. There hasn't been an increase in the minimum wage since 1997, and members of the leadership, which has repeatedly blocked bringing the increase to a vote, now said it was time for low-wage workers to get a raise. But at what a cost!

H.R. 5970, The Estate Tax and Extension of Tax Relief Act of 2006, will deepen the deficit by at least three-quarters of a trillion dollars over its first full decade (2012-2021) through its estate tax cut. Even now, we are fighting cuts in health care, education, job training, Head Start, and so many other services that low-income people depend upon. Congressional leaders say there's no money to avoid cuts in these services, but will borrow money to pay multi-billions to multimillionaires, leading to worse service cuts in the future. The House estate tax bill will benefit only 8,200 families, who will get $1.4 million each, on average, in 2011.

It's heartbreaking (and infuriating) to have to reject a minimum wage increase - but H.R. 5970 must be rejected. Senator Kennedy (D-MA), the Senate's leader in pushing for increases in the minimum wage, said this:

It's political blackmail to say the only way that minimum wage workers can get a raise is to give tax giveaways to the wealthiest Americans. Members of Congress raised their own pay - no strings attached. Surely, common decency suggests that minimum wage workers deserve the same respect."

Today's factoid:
$31,600: the amount Congress has raised its own salary in nine separate increases since 1997.
$0: the amount Congress has raised the minimum wage since the last increase in 1997.

Sneak Attack on Workers with Tips:
Under current federal law, employers can pay tipped employees as little as $2.13 an hour in a direct wage, with tips getting workers the rest of the way to the minimum wage (or the employer must pay the difference if tips are not sufficient). However, seven states require employers to directly pay tipped employees $5.15/hour or higher, just like other employees. H.R. 5970 would preclude states from adopting these more generous protections for tipped employees. The states affected are Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington, plus Guam. Their workers will lose substantial amounts, to the considerable benefit of the restaurant industry.

The toll-free number is provided courtesy of the American Friends Service Committee, a Quaker organization whose work for social justice, peace, and humanitarian service includes campaigns for a moral budget and a fair minimum wage (www.afsc.org/economic-justice/). AFSC welcomes groups to circulate and use the toll-free number in support of non-partisan budget goals and without linking the alert to a website soliciting donations or actions which may be used to support partisan lobbying or work.

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